Trace-carrier.



No.'628,529. Patantod July ll, I899.

.1. B. GATHRIGHT.

TRACE CARRIER.

(Application filed. June 23, 1898.)

"No Model.)

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NITED STAT Es PATENT GFFICE.

JOSIAH B. GATHRIGHT, OF LOUISVILLE, KENTUCKY.

TRACE-CARRIER.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 628,529, dated July 11,1899.

Application filed June 23, 1898- .Serial No. 684,253. (No model.)

To all whmn it may concern.-

Be it known that I, JOSIAH B. GATHRIGHT, a citizen of the United States,residing at Louisville, in the county of Jefierson and State ofKentucky, have invented certain new and useful Improvements inTrace-Carriers; and I do declare the following to be a full, clear, andexact description of the invention, such as will enable others skilledin the art to which it appertains to make and use the same, referencebeing had to the accompany ing drawings and to the letters and figuresof reference marked thereon, which form a part of this specification.

This invention has particular reference to that type of combinedback-band buckles and trace-carriers which are made of sheet metal andwith the hook and buckle portions stamped therein and its object is toprovide a simplified and cheapened device which will be most strong anddurable in construction and most efficient in maintaining its adjustedposition upon the back-band by friction alone and also to provide onewhich may be quickly attached to or detached from a back-band and willnot destroy or weaken the latter.

- object is accomplished by the construction modified form.

The same reference characters designate the same parts in the severalfigures.

The base-plate A is made wider at its upper end than at its lower end,and its said upper and lower ends are of equal depth, and theirrespective curves at and a are of the same radius, so that when saidbase-plates are cut from a strip of sheet-steel or other suitable sheetmetal having a length that is a multiple of a base-plate anda width thesame as the height of the base-plate no material is wasted or lostexcept the small triangular pieces 00 in the corners between twoadjacent base-plates, as indicated in Fig. 3,

This

thus resulting in a great saving of material in comparison withsheet-metal trace-carriers heretofore proposed. By forming saidbaseplate with square corners, as may be done, the pieces a: will hesaved; but the construction shown is preferred. In addition to suchsaving of material the described form of the base-plate gives the lattera stem or narrower part of such width that the hook B, formed thereinfor the trace-chain, will be so arranged thereon as to provide in saidbaseplate and at each side of and below said hook Wearing plates orportions Z) for separating the trace-chain from the'back band I and forsupporting and stiffening said hook. Said hookB is formed by properlyslitting the baseplate and punching or stamping the metal bounded bysaid slits into curved orhook form, and in practice the point I) of saidhook will be in the plane of the base-plate, so as to cause it moreefficiently to hold the tracechai'n.

The upper portion of the base-plate is preferably formed with two seriesof slits 1 l and 2 2, extending longitudinally thereof, and the metalbetween said slits is bent or punched outward beyond the plane of thebase-plate, thus forming two resilient tongues O and D, occupying aplane outside the plane of the base-plate, an intermediateseparating-bar E and a rigid top bar F in the plane of the remainingportion of the base-plate, and openings C and Dbelow the respectivetongues, which openings and tongues are of the same dimensions, so thatthe longitudinal edges of the latter will be in the horizontal planes ofthe longitudinal edges of the former. In or-. der that said tongues maybe bent from the base-plate at their ends without distorting orweakening the device and also to the end that the tongues shall beresilient, so as to in Fig. 4. When slit at the ends, said slits willpreferably be at the right and left, re-

spectively, and when slit at an intermediate point they will preferablybe at the longitudinal centers thereof.

When the device is applied to a back-band, the latter extends under thebar F, through opening forward and upward over tongue C, rearward andupward back through said opening 0, and around the edge of theinterinedi'atebar E, thence along the under surface of the latter,through opening D, and forward and upward over the tongue D,thencerearward and upward back to and through said opening D, and thencedownward along the under surface of the narrower part of the base-plate,as shown in Figs. 1 and 2. It will be seen that well-defined loops areformed by to give it a tendency to slip on the band the tongues will'bepressed down upon said loops and exert a clamping action on them, whichwill greatly aid the friction caused by the indirection given to theband in passing through the openings and around the tongues to securelyhold the trace-carrier in position. In practice it has been found thatthe friction caused by the indirection of the band is not sufficient initself to securely hold the tracecarrier in position, and the clampingaction of the resilient tongue is therefore a valuble improvement on thesheet-metal trace-carriers heretofore proposed.

Owing to the greater efficiency of the slit tongue for holding theback-band, one tongue will secure it; but two tongues will cause moreuniform wear and strain upon the two edges of the band when the slitsare at the ends of the tongues, and that is preferable as affordinggreater resiliency by reason of the greater leverage.

increasing the hold of the buckle thereon.

It will furthermore be seen that the most important feature of slittingthe tongues transversely causes the buckle to hold to the band byfriction alone so tightly as to avoid all possibility of accidentalslippage, while at the same time it enables said tongues to be bent atthe ends without weakening the device.

Having thus described the invention, what I believe to be new, anddesire to secure by Letters Patent, is

1. A trace-carrier, form ed of resilient sheet metal, and having slitsin its base portion and the metal between the slits bent out to form aclamping-tongue occupying a plane outside that of the base, said tonguebeing slit transversely to give resilience and enable it to be bentwithout stretching the metal, substantially as described.

2. A resilient sheetmetal trace-carrier, having a plurality of pairs ofparallel slits in its base portion and the metal between each pair ofslits bent out and separated at one end from the base to form resilientclampingtongues occupying a plane outside that of'the base, each tonguebeing separated from the base at an end opposite the separated end ofthe adjacent tongue, substantially as and for the purposes specified.

In testimony whereof I affix my signature is presence of two witnesses.

JOSIAH B. GATHRIGHT. Witnesses:

E. S. Foorn, J. E. MCGRATH.

